It is not
often that one has an
opportunity to read a splendid book featuring our mountain heritage and
then actually
have the experience of visiting those areas where that history took
place.On a bright and crisp April day, I
met with Charles
Hill and his lovely wife, Jackie, at their beautiful home in
Blairsville.What I had anticipated to be
just a short
visit for an interview became a full afternoon of delightful talk,
wonderful
hospitality and a driving tour of the Choestoe region as seen through
the pages of the book.History came alive that day, and with it, a deeper respect for
the proud,
independent and unpretentious mountain folks whose devotion to each
other gives
a whole new meaning to the word “family.”

The Reverend John Henry Lance, the
great-grandfather of Jackie Hill, was the victim of one of the most
notorious
murders that had ever taken place in UnionCounty.A devout Methodist preacher, Reverend Lance
often denounced the evils of moonshine from the pulpit.Beloved by his family and friends, John Lance
preached love for his fellow man while condemning the evils of alcohol.That did not “set right” with some of his
neighbors, most notably the Swaims, who lived nearby on YellowMountain.After
an earlier incident when John Lance’s
young son, Jim, was viciously beaten nearly to death, things went from
bad to
worse in their relationship with their cowardly, indolent neighbors.Several months prior to the murder, Frank
Swaim made veiled threats against John Lance’s life, so great was his
anger at
the Reverend’s diatribe against “this gangrene in our midst” (pg.
101).Ultimately, the Swaims and Cannups believed
that John Lance and his sons, Fate (Lafayette) and Jim, were the ones
that reported
their wildcat still to the revenuers.

“We are against moonshining, but
reporting it is not the way we operate” said Jim Lance, in a
confrontation with
Frank Swaim over the ominous threats he had made against the Reverend
Lance (pg. 108).Lamentably,
no argument from Jim Lance could
change the moonshine-fueled rage that Frank Swaim held for all the
Lance
family.On February 17, 1890, a murder most vile
would
forever shatter the only peace that Jim Lance and his family would ever
know.

Charles Hill has written a factual
narrative of a true family story in response to substantial
misconceptions and
misinformation that stemmed from several sources, most notably, from an
article
that appeared in 1925 in the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper.Written by Frank Swaim’s defense attorney,
Carl Wellborn, Jr., the article was filled with allegations and
half-truths.While doing research for his
book, Mr. Hill
was struck by how far from the truth this article was.“It would have made a tremendous movie…it was
romantic and far fetched.I thought,
well, this is a great story, but it doesn’t stack up with what we have
been
told.So, that piqued my curiosity and
that got me started,” said Mr. Hill.

Thus commenced a writing
journey that began in 1988 as a compilation of family history.“I was never really sure that I wanted to
publish it,” said Mr. Hill, “I just wanted to tell the truth.” When the
Hills’
extended family gathered on cold winter evenings and played cards,
their talk
would eventually turn to a figure that loomed larger than life, that of
Jim
Lance.Mrs. Hill’s dad, Jay Lance, would
talk about his father.“He was a man
that was bigger than life itself.He was
a big fellow.After this occurred (the
murder), he was a tough individual,” said Mr. Hill, remembering from
the many
talks he had with his late father-in-law.

Mr. Hill quoted Jack Lance, another of
Jim Lance’s sons, who said this about his dad, “My Daddy should have
looked at
the murder of his Daddy in the light that he was the first martyr to
Prohibition in the state of Georgia.But he didn’t do it…it (the murder)
embittered him for life and the family suffered because of it.He took to drinking because of it and never
could get over it.In his lifetime, he
was in over a thousand fights.Most of
them he won because most of the people were afraid of Jim Lance.He said he would walk a mile to get out of a
fight but his Daddy would walk ten miles just to get into one. He also
said he was
the bravest man in the face of danger that he’d ever seen in his life,
and that
the family would not have been surprised at any time of the day or
night that
he didn’t come home because of his fighting escapades.”

“People might think that he ought to
have forgiven and initially I might think that.But till I’ve walked in Jim Lance’s footsteps, and had the same
things
happened to me, I cannot tell how I would react” said Mr. Hill when I
asked him
if he thought Jim Lance carried this bitterness in his soul too far.

Charles Hill’s book is part history,
part family lore, and an apt portrayal of the people and the culture of
the Appalachian Mountains during the
late nineteenth
century.Through his intensive research
and in many of his talks with his late father-in-law, Jay Lance, Mr.
Hill
believes he has come close to depicting Jim Lance in the way that he
would have
spoken.“The purist strain of
Elizabethan English is spoken in these mountains and I’ve tried to use
the old
mountain sayings in this book as a way of preserving them,” he said.“I think I hit it right on the head as to
what he would have said.”

Always interested in writing, but
never thinking he would actually become a published author, Mr. Hill
said that
he would probably pursue the story of Jim Lance in the form of a sequel
to Blood
Mountain Covenant.“I may do a
sequel on this one because I stopped the story in 1925.Jim Lance died in 1940.I stopped
it because it was getting so lengthy
and I know a lot of people won’t read it if it gets so long, so I
stopped
there.But there was as much action from
1925 up until the time that he died in 1940 as there was in the book
that I’ve
written.”

He has also “written up a bunch of
funny
stories about things that have happened in the mountains.Don’t have them finished yet, but I’ve done
that in my spare time.I might do
something with that,” he said with a smile.Just listening to Mr. Hill speak in his soft mountain twang
about his
experiences and knowing the talent he has shown in the writing of Blood
Mountain Covenant assures the reader that another outstanding book
will
debut in the future!

For those of you that are researching
your ancestral roots in UnionCounty, I would
highly
recommend that you read Blood Mountain Covenant.The wondrous manner in the way that Mr. Hill
has connected the spirit and devoutness of the mountain folk, the hard
life
they struggled to live, and their fierce dedication to their families,
all of
this taking place against the background of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, makes this a “must read.”The book provides the reader with a sense of
the era and with a deeper appreciation of what our ancestors struggled
for day
in and day out.

Over the
years, the mountain people were given a truly
unjust depiction of ignorance, stupidity and backwardness. That is far,
far
from the truth. Mr. Hill writes of how they are a quiet, proud and
unpretentious people, springing from the same strong pioneer stock that
helped
to carve out the greatness of this mighty country of ours.These people persevered; their love for the
mountains is obvious, even today.

As
a proud native son of these beautiful mountains, Mr. Hill has done a
great
justice for his family and for the truth.Jim Lance was known to have said, “The truth will eventually
prevail,
for I know that as long as there is a Lance residing in UnionCounty,
they will be searching for the real truth.” (pg.223).I
dare say
that perhaps now, maybe Jim Lance’s tormented soul has
attained a sense of peace knowing that his
family had persevered, finally bringing vindication to his father’s
good name.